Hello 👋
I hope you are having a great week so far!
I have a variety of things to share about the last 7 days that I’ve learned and have been able to reclaim.
First, if you haven’t visited my last blog post, The Unexpected, I want to encourage you to have a quick read through after you read this post. It will walk you through how to handle those unexpected things in life and maneuver through it with a better mindset.
It was a weekend to celebrate! 🥳
On another note, I’m coming off a great weekend! It was the Easter weekend and a great time with family. What made it even more special is mom’s birthday this year was on Easter Sunday, and she turned 75!!
My mom is one of the most amazing people on the planet! She loves blessing people with her cooking and makes amazing Portuguese meals for us and anyone who visits. She’ll let you take any food away with you no matter who you are. She makes a boat load of sweat bread this time of year and gives it out to so many people she wants to bless. This is what it looks like!
To honour my mom on her 75th birthday my sister-in-law wrote a tribute on a Facebook post that I want to share.
The Tribute ❤️
(From my sister-in-law)
“This is a day late, but happy 75th birthday to my precious mother-in-love, one of the most beautiful women I have ever known. This amazing lady left her home country, the beautiful island of St Miguel, Azores, at the age of 19, to come to Canada where she married and raised 3 kids, all while working full time and giving of her life and the love of Jesus to everyone she meets. She is hands down the most generous person I have ever had the honour of knowing, continuously showing her love for others by cooking, making Portuguese treats like sweet bread, and always having treats on hand, often staying up late into the wee hours of the morning, kneading and waiting for dough to rise, preparing a turkey or ham, etc. If she has even an inkling that you might like something that belongs to her, she encourages you to take it. She is nothing but a blessing and I’m so honoured that we continue to get to enjoy her company and be a blessing to her in return. We love you Mom/Delia/Vâvo! “
Couldn’t have said it better myself! My mom is an amazing woman and I thank God for her!
Now, what’s been happening on the business side of things?
Reclaimed! 😉
I haven’t been able to use my Aweber for a while now as it wasn’t set up to function according to the new Gmail/Yahoo rules. I had been trying to set it up through Aweber’s guidelines they created with a “how to instruction post” but was unsuccessful.
I finally submitted a support ticket with my mentor’s support team and had tried a couple more times and failed again, so I sent them images of what I was doing. That was the best thing I could do, as soon as they saw the image they could see what the issue was. Now that they see it they can fix it for me!
And they did! This morning, after the Easter holiday, I received an email that it was done and thank you support team!
Why is this so important? 🤔
Aweber is the autoresponder connected to my Iceberg Effect Book Funnel, and I had previously invested some money on a traffic co-op. From it I was able to obtain 167 leads and there are still 130 subscribed leads on those lists I can utilize.
Each lead is someone I can help, connect them to something they need, and become a potential customer I can serve for the long-term. I don’t want to waste leads, they’re not easy to get 😊. No businessperson out there just gives up on leads that are still potential.
Starting this week, I can draft some emails to send these leads to reconnect with them and hopefully guide them to subscribing to my blog or revisit their past interest in affiliate training. Wish me luck 😊
30 Day Sprints 🏃
In addition to all of that, I had a PRO coaching session with my mentor Dean Holland several days ago. It’s always an amazing coaching session with Dean and it is always REAL, no holding back, what’s needed to move forward and be successful.
In this session, Dean reminded us about what he calls the 30-day sprints. For each 30-day segment there are steps to follow and tasks to accomplish in order to make the most of those 30 days and remain on track. This also helps avoid wasting time and helps focus on the most important tasks.
Dean calls this process the key to consistent progress, and something I need to be more diligent in utilizing.
- Define when you will work on your business. 🕛
- Set apart time based on your schedule, and when you can work on your business.
- Everyone has different lives, some have kids, some don’t, some work full-time and some not working or are retired. Our obligations vary and we should block out the time we are able to work on our business, even if it is only 1 hour a day.
- Focus on your traffic generation strategy daily. 📈
- Considering we already have the funnel set up and the follow up emails in the funnel which a subscriber will receive.
- Now we work on ways to generate traffic to the product offering.
- There are organic (free) ways of getting traffic such as blogging, social media posts, videos to attract interested people.
- There’s also paid traffic such as, FB lead ads, Google ads, ads on any form of social media or AdWords.
- We select a primary strategy we want to use, and possibly a secondary strategy, then use those, learn them thoroughly to generate traffic.
- Fill in the daily tracker sheet every day. ✍️
- My mentor Dean made a daily tracker spreadsheet that we can enter data such as number of clicks, leads, commissions, ad spend. It calculates cost per click, cost per lead, and more.
- It’s basically to keep track of the work we do and the outcomes of that work.
- Submit for Results Review every month. 📥
- We are to fill out daily and on the 1st of each month we send it to Dean, and he will review it and give us individual feedback on what we can do for the next 30 days to be more productive.
- When you have a list, you can incorporate email marketing. 📧
- This refers to sending the people on your list emails with any updates or something they can use to benefit them. Can be a product or service.
- This means it’s important to know those on your list and what their interests or needs are. You want to recommend what will benefit them not just anything.
This is the 30-day sprint! It can be challenging to track work and be consistent when self-employed. We can be used to being held by company processes and tracking policies from a job we do or did, but when we’re working alone, we aren’t necessarily used to creating this system or process for ourselves. However, it is important to track, document and review in order to succeed.
Thank goodness I have a mentor who can help put this in place and knows exactly what’s required to be successful!
Are there ways that you use that’s like this 30-day sprint in your work? If so, please share this in a comment below. I also welcome any feedback, questions, comments about anything else I’ve posted about!
Talk Soon,
Denny
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Great post! Definitely accountability affects progress and productivity in reaching our goals. Thank you for sharing this information and Happy Birthday to your beautiful mom!
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for sharing your feedback!
So happy you enjoyed the post!
Denny
Hi, Denny!
Happy belated birthday to your Mom!
I’m glad you got your AWeber sorted. Their 24/7 support is so helpful. I’ve always found them to be very nice and willing to help.
It is difficult to follow Dean’s advice for 30-day Sprints day in and day out. I got a tip to make a list of things that I do daily, and I do them in that order without fail. So, for example, I fill out my daily tracker sheet, check my blog comments, check my business email, and then I do my traffic strategy/email follow-up I have planned for the particular day of the week.
And I plan on Sunday what to do for the traffic/follow-up during the week.
Taking the choice out of what to do next was very helpful.
And another tip that surprised me! Take a break now and then. Step outside, make a cup of tea/coffee, smell the roses! And then, get back to it. So helpful to step away for a moment!
Another great post, Denny! I look forward to the next one 🙂
Hi Nakina,
Thanks so much for your feedback and encouragement!
You have a system figured out!! I actually don’t follow Dean’s in order he mentioned.
I also made a list of tasks for each day of the week which I follow as well 🙂
To continued growth and productivity with some coffee breaks 🙂
Denny
Wow! You have been busy! I love the tribute to your mom! Family is so incredibly important. Whether it is your actual family or family you choose. It is wonderful to be appreciative of those that have shaped our lives. The 30-day Sprint is a great summary of how to make things happen. Currently, I am stuck in #2 but will get results with patience and persistence.
Hi Ernie,
Thank you for sharing!
Family is so important and should be appreciated often, so happy you enjoyed the tribute.
Choosing and working the traffic strategy is one of the harder ones.
Like everything else, as you said, patience and persistence and results will come!
Denny
Hi Denny,
Your mom seems so sweet! You’re lucky to have her. I sure hope you’re able to retrieve all your leads. That would be awful if you can’t. Before I started with Dean I was with another company and had gained about 35 leads with that company. Since I wasn’t familiar with how things worked then I lost those leads. I wasn’t happy about it, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. Keep with it, and I’m sure it will work out. I need to get on the boat with the monthly results review too. I only have done that once so far. You seem to know what you’re doing here. Keep it up! Great layout with your blog post today. Thanks!
Meredith
Meredith Moore recently posted…Sneak Peek Into Affiliate System & Email Marketing Strategy
Hi Meredith,
Thank you for your comment and sentiments!
Sorry you lost your 35 leads, that’s terrible. I’m working on my leads.
I haven’t been able to contact them for a couple months, so I’m not sure who I will lose as I contact them again.
Oh well, they’re not the only leads on the planet 🙂
Thanks again for sharing!
Denny
Happy Birthday to your mom! She seems like an amazing lady, and I would love to try her delicious sweat bread, yum!!! 30-day sprint is a great idea!!!!! I fill out my tracker daily, but since my focus has shifted to organic traffic methods, I am often filling out zeros, which in the past I would have overthought and said this isn’t working, that is why having clear expectations of results is so important, organic traffic methods can take a long time to develop, but it’s not just about money coming in and going out, it is about views and followers, and I can say those numbers are steadily rising daily! Definitely something to celebrate!
Alison Blaire recently posted…Lead Magnet Creation: Step 1 in Preparing to Run Facebook Lead Ads
Hi Alison,
Thank you for your comment and sentiments!
Organic traffic is definitely one that takes a long time, but with the long-term mindset that you have it will be possible!
In celebration to your views and followers growing daily!
Denny
Hi Denny,
I loved reading about your mom! She sounds like an amazing person. I’m blessed to have had a mom like yours—if you left her house without eating, you weren’t invited back 🙂 The 30-day sprint framework is very helpful for me. I get overwhelmed thinking I have to do everything in a day. Creating a precise 30-day plan gives me room to breathe.
Looking forward to reading your next post,
Michael
Michael recently posted…My Map For Writing A Blog Post
Hi Ernie,
Thank you kindly for your comment and sentiments!
Would have loved to meet and eat with you and your mom’s 🙂
I have converted my 30 day sprints to a weekly schedule of tasks to do each day.
I find it easier to look at each day and check off each task as completed, helps not forget anything.
Thanks again and hope to see you back again!
Denny
Denny,
i do not have a spreadsheet but I do have a list of things I want to accomplish everyday. I do not always get everything completed but I work on my list. I also commit to working on my business a minimum of 1-2 hours every day. I know you are glad to get your Aweber back up and running.
Sherri
Hi Sherri,
Thanks for your comment! I think it’s important for everyone to find what works for them.
If you’re happy with what you’re doing then That’s great 🙂 1 – 2 hours per day is plenty!
I am certainly happy I got Aweber in order. Just hope I can keep most of the leads since I haven’t been able to connect with them in a while.
To you continued success!
Denny
Hi Denny,
What an amazing week you’ve had to celebrate your mom’s 75th birthday!! She is awesome!
Having coaching sessions with your coach & mentor is awesome, to be able to get specific advice for your business is invaluable, and the 30-day sprint is good for organization and productivity. And yes, it’s good to follow that roadmap.
Hi Eleanor,
Thanks for your comment and encouragement!
It was an amazing week and yes, mom is and awesome woman, Thanks 🙂
That mentoring and roadmap are so critical in moving forward.
Hoping you’re having fun with and moving forward in your biz!
Denny
Hi Denny! Thanks for sharing your week with us. It sounds like you had a wonderful Easter celebration with your family, especially honouring your mum on her 75th birthday! It’s great to hear that you’ve been able to tackle some business challenges, like getting your Aweber set up and reclaiming those leads. The advice on 30-day sprints seems like a helpful strategy for staying focused and making progress. Keep up the good work, and wishing you all the best with your email marketing and other endeavors! Thanks, Atif
Hi Atif,
Thanks so much for sharing, so happy you enjoyed the post!
I appreciate your encouragement and wish you success in your business as well!
Denny
Structure is the key action but doing so in such a way that you are not held hostage by the structure. That’s the trick!
Hi Kate,
Thank you for your advice and encouragement!
Hope all is well as you work on your business!
Denny
Hi Denny,
Great post – Ironically, just had finished listening to the PRO recorded session and your reminder was a great read!
After several months of missed opportunities, I’m looking to get on track and get myself where I’d like to be with the 30 day sprint you mentioned above.
Looking forward to the end of April meeting and seeing where I stand!
Appreciate the reminder to keep myself on track!
Hi Marc,
Thanks for sharing about your situation!
It’s all a work in progress. Honestly speaking, I could have done more or faster, but It is what is it is.
There’s another day ahead to continue this great work and make up for lost time and effort.
We can’t change how we handled the past but we can take the next steps now and move ahead 🙂
All the best as you continue to progress!
Denny
Denny,
30 day sprints are a great way to make progress quickly. When I had my insurance business we use to do 90 day mad man cycles. In These cycles we’d shut out news, social media and all other distractions for 90 days. It would be heads down no holds bar, totally focused on building the business. If it wasn’t business related then it got left undone until the end of the 90 days.
Once the 90 days was up, we rested, rejuvenated and spent time on none business things for a week. Then it was back to the next 90 mad man cycle.
It is amazing what you can accomplish in that short period of time.
I would start out with 30 days and work on expanding it to 90.
You Got This!
CJ
Hi CJ,
Thanks for your feedback and for sharing from your past experience in insurance!
Right now 30 days is manageable but maybe in the future it might be worth trying 60 and 90 days.
Appreciate your encouragement. All the best!
Denny
HI Denny! What an amazing milestone to have the privilege to celebrate with your mother 🙂 It sounds like she was a truly amazing person. It’s great that you utilized the support team to resolve your Aweber issue, you are making good use of the tools available to you. You have developed an excellent routine of documentation and submission that has clearly helped you tremendously! Keep up the good work, you are on a fantastic path to success!
Sharel Siarkiewicz recently posted…#11 Navigate through the steps of creatin’ a website
Hi Sharel,
Thanks so much for your comment and encouragement!
Couldn’t do what I do or be where I am without help from the support team.
I also give credit to those who read and comment with encouragement like you!
Thanks 🙂
Denny
Great post. Best wished to your Mum.
I have really struggled the last few weeks, technical issues that were so frustrating, work overload with emergency away days to sort out issues, a general lack of motivation, so the 30 day plan was a timely reminder of what I need to do to make progress. Many thanks
Hi Tony,
Thanks for sharing about your situation. I’m sorry you’ve been facing so many difficult and frustrating issues.
It can be deflating sometimes when so many things happen at the same time.
As you continue through this I hope things ease up and you regain more peace and inspiration.
You’re someone that get’s the job done even in challenging seasons!
Power to you!
Denny
I love your post, Denny. Very thorough and informative. It can be hard to keep up on a daily routine and it’s one struggle I do have because of work and other commitments but I am striving forward regardless and if I can’t do something daily, I make sure I put in extra time on other days when I do have more time. I can see how your business is moving forward steadily and I look forward to following your journey.
Hi Vanessa,
Thanks so much for your comment!
It certainly can be challenging to keep up, then again we show up when we can and in time our business grows.
I may take a little longer, but if we look back 1-2 months there does seem to be some good improvement even though we wish we had more time 🙂
Thanks again for sharing and wishing you continued success!
Denny